Reported birth of rare white buffalo calf in Yellowstone park fulfills Lakota prophecy
By: Amy Beth Hanson
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The reported birth of a rare white buffalo in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times, according to members of the American Indian tribe who cautioned that it’s also a signal that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals.
“The birth of this calf is both a blessing and warning. We must do more,” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and the Nakota Oyate in South Dakota, and the 19th keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle.
The birth of the sacred calf comes as after a severe winter in 2023 drove thousands of Yellowstone buffalo, also known as bison, to lower elevations. More than 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughter or transferred to tribes seeking to reclaim stewardship over an animal their ancestors lived alongside for millennia.
For the Lakota, the birth of a white buffalo calf with a black nose, eyes and hooves is akin to the second coming of Jesus Christ, Looking Horse said.
Lakota legend says about 2,000 years ago — when nothing was good, food was running out and bison were disappearing — White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared, presented a bowl pipe and a bundle to a tribal member, taught them how to pray and said that the pipe could be used to bring buffalo to the area for food. As she left, she turned into a white buffalo calf.
“And some day when the times are hard again,” Looking Horse said in relating the legend, “I shall return and stand upon the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves.”
Group of Seven summit turns to migration after promising tens of billions to Ukraine
BORGO EGNAZIA, Italy (AP) — A summit meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations is expected to focus on migration on its second day Friday, seeking ways to combat trafficking and increase investment in countries from where migrants start out on often life-threatening journeys.
Migration is a priority for summit host Italy and its right-wing Premier Giorgia Meloni, who’s seeking to increase investment and funding for African nations as a means of reducing migratory pressure on Europe.
The gathering in a luxury resort in Italy’s southern Puglia region is also focusing on global conflicts and the spread of artificial intelligence. Perennial issues such as climate change and China also will be discussed. As the summit opened on Thursday, attendees promised tens of billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine.
But some divisions also appeared to emerge over the wording of the summit’s final declaration, with disagreement reported over the inclusion of a reference to abortion.
The G7 is an informal forum with an annual summit to discuss economic policy and security issues. The members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Demolition begins of the Parkland classroom building where 17 died in 2018 shooting
By: Terry Spencer
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — A large excavator stretched to the top floor of the three-story classroom building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, making a loud wrenching sound as it punched out a window early Friday as the long-awaited demolition project got underway.
Several victims’ family members stood about 100 yards (91 meters) away in the school’s parking lot holding their cellphones to take photos and video of the event.
Nearby, Dylan Persaud, who was a student in 2018, watched as the destruction began.
Persaud had been standing near the freshman building when the shooting started that day. He lost seven long-time friends and his geography teacher, Scott Beigel, in the shooting.
“I’d like to see it gone,“ he said. “It puts a period on the end of the story. They should put a nice memorial there for the 17.”
Iran installing and starting cascades of advanced centrifuges as tensions high over nuclear program
By: Jon Gambrell
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has started up new cascades of advanced centrifuges and plans to install others in the coming weeks after facing criticism over its nuclear program, the United Nations’ atomic watchdog said Friday. The U.S. called the moves “nuclear escalations.”
Spinning up new centrifuges further advances Iran’s nuclear program, which already enriches uranium at near-weapons-grade levels and boasts a stockpile enough for several nuclear bombs if it chose to pursue them. However, the acknowledgement from the International Atomic Energy Agency did not include any suggestion Iran planned to go to higher enrichment levels amid wider tensions between Tehran and the West as the Israel-Hamas war rages in the Gaza Strip.
The IAEA said its inspectors verified Monday that Iran had begun feeding uranium into three cascades of advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility. Cascades are a group of centrifuges that spin uranium gas together to more quickly enrich the uranium.
So far, Iran has been enriching uranium in those cascades up to 2 per cent purity. Iran already enriches uranium up to 60 per cent, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.
A statement from Kate, Princess of Wales on her cancer treatment
LONDON (AP) — Kate, Princess of Wales, has given an update on her cancer treatment, saying she is making good progress and hopes to return to some public duties.
“I have been blown away by all the kind messages of support and encouragement over the last couple of months. It really has made the world of difference to William and me and has helped us both through some of the harder times.
I am making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days. On those bad days you feel weak, tired and you have to give in to your body resting. But on the good days, when you feel stronger, you want to make the most of feeling well.
My treatment is ongoing and will be for a few more months. On the days I feel well enough, it is a joy to engage with school life, spend personal time on the things that give me energy and positivity, as well as starting to do a little work from home.
I’m looking forward to attending The King’s Birthday Parade this weekend with my family and hope to join a few public engagements over the summer, but equally knowing I am not out of the woods yet.
I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty. Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body, and allowing myself to take this much needed time to heal.
Thank you so much for your continued understanding, and to all of you who have so bravely shared your stories with me.”
Supreme Court strikes down Trump-era ban on rapid-fire rifle bump stocks, reopening political fight
By: Lindsay Whitehurst
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, the rapid-fire gun accessories used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, in a ruling that threw firearms back into the nation’s political spotlight.
The high court’s conservative majority found that the Trump administration overstepped when it changed course from predecessors and banned bump stocks, which allow a rate of fire comparable to machine guns. The decision came after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival with assault rifles equipped with the accessories.
The gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds into the crowd in 11 minutes, sending thousands of people fleeing in terror as hundreds were wounded and dozens were killed in 2017.
The 6-3 majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas found the Justice Department was wrong to declare that bump stocks transformed semi automatic rifles into illegal machine guns because, he said, they don’t “alter the basic mechanics of firing.”
Justice Samuel Alito agreed but wrote a short separate opinion to stress that Congress can change the law. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in a dissent joined by the court’s liberals and read out loud in the courtroom that she hoped Congress would act.
